The Northwestern Wildcats came up short this afternoon against the Arkansas Razorbacks in the opening round of the 2015 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. Kelsey Brooks led the way for the Razorbacks with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Alex Cohen led the way for the Wildcats with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists.
The game started out slow for Northwestern, as they allowed Arkansas to jump out to an early 9-2 run through the first 6 minutes of the game. However Northwestern answered back with a run of their own, a 9-0 run that was led by Alex Cohen and Maggie Lyon. Cohen tied the game up with a three pointer at the 12:51 mark in the half bringing the score to 9-9.
Then it was Maggie Lyon who scored on a nice little mid-range jump shot that pushed the Wildcats out in front for their first lead of the game making the score 11-9. Northwestern's defense was phenomenal through this stretch, they made Arkansas move the ball around and they even forced a few shot clock violations. Turnovers towards the latter end of the half really hurt Northwestern yet again and the first half ended with both teams knotted up at 23 points apiece.
Northwestern started the second half off on a good note as Ashley Deary fed the ball inside over two defenders to Alex Cohen, Cohen would finish the play with a nice little layup. Cohen's bucket extended the Wildcat run to 6-0 to start the half and forced Arkansas head coach Jimmy Dykes to call a time out.
The Razorbacks however would answer back when Kelsey Brooks was fouled by Northwestern’s Cohen. Brooks would head to the charity stripe and knock down both free throws bringing the score to 29-25 in favor of Northwestern. Shortly after it was Jessica Jackson of Arkansas who was called for the foul on Cohen, Cohen went to the line for two shots, she would make both bringing the score to 39-33 in favor of the Wildcats with 13:45 remaining in the game. Northwestern’s Nia Coffey finally found her groove and she started stretching the defense and made some good moves to get past Razorback defenders so she could score.
Then the momentum shifted over to Arkansas, the Razorbacks seemed to hit every shot they took throughout the last 3 minutes of the game and they capitalized off of Northwestern’s turnovers which is what pushed them past the Wildcats in the first round game.
Both teams would share trips to the line roughly 3 or 4 more times, Arkansas made their shots and Northwestern struggled making their shots which was enough for the Razorbacks to come out on top, winning 57-55.